Fitness for Life Chapter 10 Flexibility

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Fitness for LifeChapter 10 Flexibility

• Flexibility Facts and Improving Flexibility
• Pgs 155-165

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What is Flexibility?

• Flexibility is the ability to move your joints
  through a full range of motion (ROM)
• A joint is a place in the body where two bones
  come together
• Joints include the ankles, knees, hips, wrists,
  elbows, and shoulders

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Benefits of Good Flexibility

• Everyone needs flexibility for health and
  mobility
• Dancers and Gymnasts need more for their routines
• Good flexibility improves the performance of
  athletes

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Benefits of Flexibility

• Stretching helps prevent injury and muscle
  soreness
• Stretching can relieve muscle and menstrual
  cramps
• Stretching improves posture

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Body Build and Flexibility

• Anatomical differences can affect flexibility
• Gender (females are usually more flexible than
  males)
• Age (younger people are usually more flexible
  than older people)

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Hypermobility(Double-Jointed)

• Having an unusually large range of motion
• The ability to extend a joint past a straight line

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Balancing Strength and Flexibility

• Strength and flexibility exercises should be done
  together
• Exclusive strength exercises can lead to loss of
  motion (muscle-bound)
• Exclusive flexibility exercises can make joints
  susceptible to injury

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Fitness Principles

• Overload stretch muscles longer than normal to
  increase flexibility (you should feel tightness
  or a pull)
• Progression as you gain flexibility, gradually
  stretch further and increase the time you hold
  the stretch
• Specificity flexibility exercises improve only
  the specific muscles and the specific joints that
  you stretch

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Range of Motion (ROM) Exercises

• ROM exercises maintain what you already have
• Believed to be the safest ways to stretch during
  warm-up

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Static Stretching

• Static Stretching is stretching slowly as far as
  you can without pain, until you feel a sense of
  pulling or tension. Hold for at least 15 seconds
• Static Stretching can increase flexibility and is
  safer than other types of stretching

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PNF Stretching

• PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation)
  is a technique used by therapists
• It involves static stretching and muscle
  contraction
• PNF involves contracting the muscle before you
  stretch it (CRAC)

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Ballistic Stretching

• Ballistic Stretching is a series of quick but
  gentle bouncing or bobbing motions that are not
  held for a long time
• Should be done carefully so not to overstretch
  and cause injury
• Ballistic stretching is more appropriate for
  higher level athletes